Ex-Sydney swim coach pleads guilty to sex abuse

Eamonn Duff

A former Sydney swim coach is facing up to 15 years in jail after he pleaded guilty to a child sexual abuse charge involving one of his former swimmers in America.

Rick Curl, 63, will be sentenced in May over the crime which took place in the 1980s with a then 13-year-old Kelley Currin. The pair came face to face at a hearing in Montgomery County Circuit Court in Rockville on Friday, in which he told the judge he had been considering pleading guilty since December.

In the decades since the offence, Curl coached several US Olympic champions and world-record holders – and enjoyed a four-year spell in Australia after he was poached by veteran Australian swimming identity Forbes Carlile to become head coach at his club.

‘‘He came here with a good reputation and a clean record and it was only after he went back to America that all this began to surface,’’ Mr Carlile said yesterday.

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‘‘He didn’t go back to America because there was any smears against his name or anything like that, he returned because he’d finished his four year contract, and that was that.’’

More than a quarter of a century has passed since Curl initiated sexual contact with Currin.

In 1983, Curl, then 34, began kissing and fondling the junior swimmer, according to charge documents.

Curl began having sexual intercourse with Currin, formerly Kelley Davies, when she turned 15. The sexual contact continued until 1987, when she left the Montgomery area to swim at the University of Texas.

In 1989, Currin and her parents entered into a $150,000 confidentiality deal with Curl, agreeing not to discuss the coach’s sexual abuse.

But last summer, Currin decided that she wanted to come forward with the allegations against Curl. He was subsequently banned from USA Swimming, the sport’s governing body, and criminally charged. He will be sentenced on May 23.

Currin, now 43, did not speak in court, but prosecutors said she plans to deliver a victim impact statement at the sentencing.

“I've told her over and over again that she's a hero. A true hero,” Assistant State's Attorney Debbie Feinstein said after the court proceedings.

“This is not a happy day for her. This is a difficult day,” she added.